Sunday, 1 February 2015

The Psychology of Shelter

We recently got the old chute out to give it an airing and a fresh smoking and it got me to thinking.

The area we pitched it in was very exposed, winds rushing through and rain coming down, the parachute nylon is incredibly fine, but, once underneath, even though we could still feel the wind and a little of the rain, just looking up and seeing 'a roof' above us gave us an incredible sense of comfort.

there's not much between you and the great open sky, just an incredibly fine piece of material however the feeling it had on morale and the sense of being enclosed was remarkable. We all know that the science of survival teaches us that the will to survive and a positive mind set are fundamental to surviving, and just being underneath that chute had such a positive reinforcing effect on our minds that I can fully understand why having a roof over your head, regardless of it's effectiveness is a genuinely important feature. I've always taken shelter for granted before but being in this little micro climate certainly gave me food for thought.
If you had have removed the chute and I'd stayed where I was sitting on the ground I would have felt incredibly vulnerable and exposed, the shelter wasn't really protecting us much but the sense of comfort it provided and how it heightened my mental well being was incredible.